Grand Island loses close match in Section VI finals to Hamburg

Only
five points separated Grand Island and Hamburg in Tuesday's Section
VI Class A girls volleyball finals, but the Bulldogs were able to
turn the slim margin into a 3-1 victory.

Hamburg
beat GI 25-23, 25-22, 19-25 and 25-19 for the championship, their
third in four years.

Ten
seniors for the Vikings played their last game for the Blue and
White.

"I
don't know if I'll ever have another class like that," GI coach
John Head said after the game. GI was the top seed in the tourney.

Tied
at 23-23 in the first game, Hamburg closed out the frame with two
kills, the final ball luckily finding a bare spot on the Vikings
floor after ticking the net cord.

In
the second game, GI built an early 10-5 lead before Hamburg went on a
10-2 run that included five straight points on Lauren Moelbert's
hard jump serve. GI recovered to tie the game at 15, and the teams
traded points to 20-20 when the Bulldogs closed out the Vikings,
25-22.

"We
knew what their strength was. They've got tough servers, and we
didn't handle that as well," said Head. "Our first touch didn't
get the ball in the system enough and they took us out of offense."

Only
the third game was squarely in one team's favor throughout. The
Vikings jumped out to a 13-6 lead in the game and went on to a
comfortable 25-19 win.

"Grand
Island did a nice job of adjusting after game two," Hamburg coach
John Crangle said. "They moved some blocking schemes around, so in
game 4 we adjusted to that. We moved a couple girls out of rotation
and we called a couple different offensive schemes, and for the girls
to carry out those schemes and be able to recognize when to do it and
do it effectively really separated us from Grand Island in game
four."

GI
trailed most of the fourth game until back-to-back kills off the
block by Al Brown tied the game at 14. Hamburg replied with three
straight points and never led by fewer than three points the rest of
the way, closing out the Vikings 25-19 to win the match.

Crangle
said experience was a factor in the overall outcome. The Bulldogs
were making their fourth straight Class A finals appearance and won
their third title.

"These
girls have been in this position before," Crangle said of the
Bulldogs. "And they've been in pressure situations, and they know
how to react and when to react, and it was evident tonight the way
they kept their composure, the way they adjusted the game plan."

Crangle
said his team never hit the panic button despite the Vikings
presenting plenty of opportunities to do so.

"They
really removed the crowd, they removed the pressures of this game
right out and were able to execute with a clear head."

Head
praised his team's effort in defeat. "They played hard. You're
down 2-nothing and they're still battling and they're still
taking games. They won that third game, and that fourth game was
anybody's right up to the end there. They keep fighting and that's
all you can ask for."